Daily Archives: October 9, 2012

david foster wallace on interiority (1989)

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We all have our little solipsistic delusions, ghastly intuitions of utter singularity: that we are the only one in the house who ever fills the ice-cube tray, who unloads the clean dishwasher, who occasionally pees in the shower, whose eyelid twitches on first dates; that only we take casualness terribly seriously; that only we fashion supplication into courtesy; that only we hear the whiny pathos in a dog’s yawn, the timeless sigh in the opening of the hermetically-sealed jar, the splattered laugh in the frying egg, the minor-D lament in the vacuum’s scream; that only we feel the panic at sunset the rookie kindergartner feels at his mother’s retreat. That only we love the only-we. That only we need the only-we. Solipsism binds us together, J.D. knows. That we feel lonely in a crowd; stop not to dwell on what’s brought the crowd into being. That we are, always, faces in a crowd.

–  from “Westward The Course Of Empire Takes Its Way”, a short story in the collection Girl With Curious Hair (1989)

fruits and veggies – a clean page

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Fruits and Veggies are vocalist Purity, guitarist Jimbo, bassist Loopy, drummer Justin, violinist Hezron and guitarist Cameron Lofstrand. They hail from Durban, South Africa and this song, “A Clean Page” is from their upcoming album. The band were filmed at shows around SA including Oppikoppi and Splashy Fen by Pascal Bennett, Sarah Dawson, Grant Payne and Kobus van Heerden and the video was edited by Michael Cross at Rogue Productions. The track was recorded at LYD Productions.

jessie mae hemphill – she wolf

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As I stepped into Jessie Mae Hemphill’s trailer, my eyes fell upon Sweet Pea (her dog) and a revolver. By the end of that first meeting, I couldn’t help thinking that this was the allure of Jessie Mae. She is sweetness incarnate, but you really wouldn’t want to mess with her either.

This same duality is present in her music. Listen to her voice and you can hear a lilting quality, bringing to mind a Billie Holiday. But listen to the lyrics, and you sense a woman who’s seen a thing or two of the world. As she pulled a hollow-tip bullet out of her blouse she spoke loudly so the young “punks” hanging out near her trailer could hear. “A bullet like this one here will put a hole in you this big,” she said, making a circle with her good arm.

As it turns out, the revolver plays a practical role. Ever since a stroke left Jessie Mae partially paralyzed, she knows a vulnerability that she had clearly never experienced. This same stroke rendered her unable to play guitar, effectively ending a successful career that was on the rise.

Read more about Jessie Mae Hemphill HERE.